customer’s drunkenness as to how much he shorts, but he did tell me it was a daily occurrence.”
“The fuck?” Patch rumbles.
“Honestly, it wasn’t that much of a surprise to me, which is just another sign that it’s time to let him go. That’s what I was prepared to do.”
“But?” Priest asks.
“But… Rhys told me the real reason he’d come to me.” I rub my hand over my face. Fuck. I fucking hate what I’m about to tell him. What makes the situation worse is that I was the one that hired Malcolm.
“Malcolm has been giving out freebies for the back room.”
The tension in the room becomes so palpable, so thick I worry we might choke.
“What did you just say?” Bullet whispers.
Patch remains silent, his steely gaze fixed on me.
“Explain,” Priest demands.
I push my chair back and stand to pace the room. How the hell did it get this far?
With a hand tightly gripping the back of the chair I was sitting on, I explain. “There’s a lot I don’t know right now. But from what I’ve been told, Malcolm has been booking girls in the back rooms and the gentlemen have not been required to pay. To cover his ass and avoid any questioning from the girls, he takes the money from the till to pay them the room fee.”
“So not only has he been stealing from customers, but now he’s stealing from us,” Patch surmises and I nod.
“Did Rhys say if it was every man that came forward, or is it a certain group?” Priest questions.
I shrug and let out a heavy sigh. “He didn’t say. But I plan on pulling feed from the cameras Bullet installed. I’m going to comb through it and see what I can find. Make notes of faces and see if we can match them to names.”
Priest nods in agreement. “They’ll need to be questioned.”
“Agreed,” Bullet and Patch say as I nod.
“And Malcolm?” Patch asks the million-dollar question.
Priest sighs and looks at each of us. “It’s no secret that we’re divided on our opinions and the future of sinners.” He looks so fucking torn, but I suspect he’s feeling most—if not all—the same things I am.
After all, Priest is the one that started the club. By chance or something more divine, he found each of us. The broken inside of him called to our own. I take my seat again as Priest continues.
“If it was just us you know this wouldn’t be an issue. Honestly, I never thought this day would come.” His lips tip up at the corners. “But I wouldn’t trade the reason we’re having this conversation for all the sinners in the world.”
Patch and Bullet both make sounds of agreement. Of course, they agree, they have families too.
But where do I stand? There was a time that I needed it. I needed the blood on my hands—on my soul. And though it’s been washed away hundreds of times over, the stains remain. Who will I be if they take this away from me?
They know who they’ll be. Husbands, fathers, men with honor and pride. But me? I’m just Maddox again, and this is all I have. Whose fucking fault is that? I give a big fuck you to the voice in my head.
“Demon will never agree to this,” I say instead, and I’m met with grim faces.
Being part of the MC, having my brothers, the sinners—It’s helped each of us purge our demons. I fear, though, that it may have only fed the one that lives inside our brother.
Priest nods. “It won’t be easy,” he agrees. “And I think we all need to be prepared for the possibility that he may walk away.” A solemn expression falls over his face and he drops his head.
My gut clenches. So that’s the only option? Stay and give up the sinners… or walk away.
Patch clears his throat. “You really think he’d do that?”
Priest stares at the empty seat at the end of the table. It sits, mocking us. A depressing proclamation of what’s to come. “Honestly, I don’t know… Do any of us really know who Demon is anymore?” His shoulders drop as the somberness of the situation settles on each of us.
“What about you?” Bullet says. His gaze is focused on me and I look away quickly, unable to meet his stare.
“What about me?” I shrug.
From the corner of my eye, I watch Bullet lean closer to the table, angling his body toward my own. “Will you be okay? If we leave this